Walking in Shotesham –  unfortunately our visit to Outney Meadows was postponed due to lack of leadership!  Next walk will be on Sunday 4th June, usual meeting place/time. 

Shotesham Screen is now suspended over the summer holiday period and will return in September, watch this space for details.  

The Tour de Shotesham was postponed (10 minutes before the start!) due to lack of numbers, perhaps the holidays…? May be re-organised later in the year, with pre-registration as a requirement!

The SVA AGM took place on TUESDAY 18TH APRIL, but you can still help the SVA continue to put on events throughout the year by making a contribution, and despite the rampant inflation all around us, the donation continues to be recommended at £3 per person. Click on link for details and methods of payment. Membership Application 2023 . Thanks again from the SVA committee.

Shotesham Art Group – Many thanks to everyone who attended and supported local art at it’s best, hope you enjoyed it!

Shotesham Parish Council info….
The Parish Council elections on May 4th – Look, it’s John Cook who was elected as our councillor for the Newton Flotman ward, well done John. Congratulations too to villagers – Jim Webber, Lib Dem councillor in Mulbarton, and Jonathan Carver, Conservative councillor for Stratton.  

Shotesham celebrates Coronation Day – good turn out for tea and Coronation cake….

…and again on Sunday 7th when we had a successful ‘bring your own picnic’ evening in the grounds of St Martin’s Church, with a number of new faces who turned up to meet and celebrate. Unfortunately, after being lit to celebrate the occasion, the beacon basket fell from its perch. Fortunately nobody was in the vicinity to see or hear it fall so only a slight re-design required prior to it’s use again in…XX many years time! 

Shotesham Open Gardens – Following the postponement of last summer’s Open Gardens we are delighted to announce that this event will be happening on Saturday July 1st and Sunday July 2nd. This year we will be raising money to support the work of the Motor Neurone Disease Association MND Association | Fighting motor neurone disease I am glad to say that we already have some gardens that will be open for visits but if you would like to open your garden too, big or small, tidy or untidy please let us know. We will also need a myriad of volunteers, refreshments, car parking etc, again get in touch with Sue Astbury 550377 or susan.astbury49@btinternet.com We’re hoping this will be a real community event, ‘may the weather be with us!’ 
Also, On Saturday May 27^th 10-12 at the Trinity Hall sees the welcome return of the Shotesham Gardeners Annual Bring and Buy Plant Fair. Come along have a cup of coffee, meet friends, and browse the wide, and varied, selection of plants and seedlings that will be on sale. If you have plants you would like to sell, bring them along, labelled, to the Trinity at 9.30 on the Saturday or take them to Sue Astbury’s Rectory Farmhouse, The Street earlier in the week. This year we are also having a stall from Nancy selling her excellent plants and also one from Tilia Market Garden who, from their plot in Hempnall, produce seasonal, naturally grown vegetables for their veg box scheme. You can find out about their work and see some of their produce. For more information call Sue on 553077. 

In the meantime you can enjoy some garden photos from last year as memories of a hot, hot summer!

 

Shotesham Common – The Trustees of Shotesham Common have been given permission by Natural England and will be continuing to carry out some work on the common over the following months. Just to explain what we are doing and why:
We will be manually cutting back sections of the banks of the beck on an annual basis, where Willow Herb has dominated, to enable birds and mammals to have access to the water.
We will be manually cutting Alder saplings and trees. Over the years these have changed the open landscape and caused drying out of the wetland meadows, which is contrary to the management agreement we have with Natural England.